Fourth International, November 1944

Manager’s Column

From Fourth International, vol.5 No.11, November 1944, p.322.
Transcribed, marked up & formatted by Ted Crawford & David Walters in 2008 for ETOL.

Letters from our agents report that sales of Fourth International have reached a new high. It is with elation that we pass this information on to our readers.

Our New York agent reported last month that the sale of the August FI (Trotsky Memorial Number) reached a new peak, that the increase in sales over the preceding month amounted to almost fifty percent.

Our Los Angeles agent writes:

“I should have given you this information about ten days ago. We had the highest newsstand circulation of the FI. In Los Angeles so far with the August issue. Our three main downtown stands sold a total of sixty-seven copies. This compares with an average of thirty-five copies for all stands six months ago. The other stands sold another fifteen copies. So, as you see, we have more than doubled the sales on stands as well as increased the total newsstands carrying Fourth International from three to eleven.”

Philadelphia requests that we increase their “FI bundle order beginning with the November issue to twenty copies.”

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Two more newsstands have been added to the list of those already carrying Fourth International:

8t. Louis: “Please list in Where You Can Buy The Fourth International Fosters Book Store, 410 Washington Avenue, so our friends may know we have the FI and The Militant on sale here in St. Louis.”

San Francisco: “Please include the following address in your list of where to buy the FI – San Francisco School of Social Science, 305 Grant Ave., 4th floor.”

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Two letters sent us by friends in other countries are very interesting and we quote from them at length.

England: “A copy of the July Issue of the FI is just to hand. Lately I have received several other issues, including one I asked for of October last year.

“A package came safely containing the various pamphlets together with the two books. All this indicates much care and attention on your part and I am indeed grateful. It is more than I could hope to expect, and I cannot express my full appreciation for all the effort you have made to see that these documents reach me. My deep thanks to all concerned.

“From the weekly, I endeavor to follow the campaign and its progress which has for its object the return of our friends. So far this has had no real success, and I can well understand how irksome it must be for them to be away from their normal life. But I trust that they are all well in health and that their confinement will be shortened before long.

“Over here you will know that the law acted differently and an attempt at a prosecution failed of its purpose.

“For those of us who live in what was at one time called ‘Southern England’ things have been really difficult. I am unable to describe in words which would convey my own feelings about this spell of bombing. One is thankful to have got through, and that Is about all one can say. So many others were less fortunate.

“Some very big changes are taking place in the industrial sphere, as is inevitable as the war nears its closing stages. But a new Social Security plan is announced quite timely – perhaps the two things have some connection.

“The material which you have sent me will have my careful attention, in fact I am already going through some now, and needless to say the arguments will be made use of in circles where its message will lead to results which we have in common.”

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Canada: “Enclosed is money towards renewal of my subs to Fourth International and The Militant. I receive them regularly and keep them circulating.

“The Stalinists have been strong in British Columbia, but their prestige is dropping. Their Labor Progressive Party is now advocating coalition with Mackenzie King’s Liberals to prepare for prosperity post-war. They say with Browder, ‘we’re not ready for socialism yet – the war has given capitalism a shot in the arm.’ Reading what we do, we know better. The Old Man built well.

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